The internet is a free bird, not a wild boar – let it be.

Imagine a child who has just learned to walk and run. Now imagine that child let loose in a park. She will jump, run, trip, fall and come back with a bump on her head and a chip over her shoulder for that swing which wouldn’t talk back to her! But she would have learnt her lessons in that short blitzkrieg.

The internet is like that or rather has been like that and is now finding it’s way after learning a lot along the way. A concept at a small scale that became such a powerful tool that it is now helping accomplish miracles. My infatuation with the internet started 17 years ago and has only grown over time into a ‘feeling that cannot be described’ because then it competes with the wife. If ICQ and Napster were alive today, in the form that they were born in, they would not understand the big deal around this.

The internet has come to us way ahead of it’s time OR it has come to us as a boon to speed up humankind’s progress to the ideal state. This is a state, to start with, without territorial limitations and with unregulated but informed and productive self-expression. This assumes that there are no basic conflicts but assuming that all conflicts are manmade it is not an impossible situation to imagine.  

It’s amazing how the topic of net neutrality has swept over urban India. 30% of the country is suddenly getting emotional about something which they want to or don’t want to change but it affects directly and indirectly a population which is almost 2.5 times their size AND probably has no clue about what is happening or going to happen. In a country where the debate should first be about having a laptop and a broadband connection in every household of the country, we are getting unfettered and almost feverish response from the urban elite who have the worst reputation of ‘making do’ and ‘adjusting’ with what comes their way.

I am myself in favour of net neutrality because I love the internet. I love the internet because it helps me grow as a person and as a professional, it helps me exchange ideas and express myself and most importantly keeps me close to my loved ones. And very honestly that is the very insight which fuels business strategy at ISPs and makes us, the urban elite, vulnerable to them.

So I mustered the courage to go through the TRAI document. It is longer than ‘Kanoon ke haath’ so much so that it will put shorthand to shame but it is very comprehensive. I didn’t manage to finish it because some of the parts in it were really funny. There is an attempt to list down multiple angles but again what discomfits me is it’s tonality. It seems to be saying that THERE IS A PROBLEM AT HAND which I think is over-dramatizing the situation. Some of the points bring out the insecurity/ cluelessness of the policy makers but since they are crowdsourcing here are a few words from the man on the street on net neutrality.

1. Focus on real issues and let the internet take care of itself

There is a very interesting point about cultural sensitivity that is raised in point 3.24 which basically says that OTT players mostly located outside India may not be sensitive to Indian culture and thus allow content which is inflammatory to circulate. There is a reference to the recent issue in Bangalore involving students from the North East.

Now the issue here is clearly education and nothing else. A well informed and educated person who has even average social interaction would be sensitive to cultures anyway so if the government focused on raising the state of education then a majority of the issues can be nipped in the bud.

The internet is just a conduit and as long as educated well informed people are at the ends of the conduits, the system can take care of itself.

2. The government should think about taking control of network infrastructure

There are repeated references to the revenue model of TSPs and how they are hampered thereby affecting government revenues (3.17 – 3.19). The government should start exploring taking control of the network infrastructure and be the sole delivery mechanism of the internet to everyone in the country. While it is understandable that the TSPs have invested significantly in building the infrastructure, this ‘takeover’ can be done via a Public Private Partnership in a phased manner via amortization. Not only will this free the internet from the pangs of bottomline pressures but it will also provide government a stronger hold over national security (which ideally shouldn’t be a concept in a borderless world!)

3. Don’t regulate, only monitor

It feels like a predicament right now because the government looks at it within the framework of existing frameworks/ policies and regulations. In fact the government needs to make a trip to Malana and free it’s mind to look at it as a fresh start. At a very basic level the internet needs to be an enabler of human growth and economic growth so new policies need to be designed from scratch. There should be no regulatory body if the network infrastructure is owned by the government. Instead there should be a body that monitors information flow but is founded in basic principles of free (but responsible) speech and economic growth. This body should be run by publicly elected people from a mix of fields and should rotate every 2 years. Much like the board of a public company.

4. Allow creative destruction and businesses to take care of themselves and their revenues

Creative destruction is a key principle in economics and allows for innovation to flourish. Large successful business thrive on that principle and will find a way even if the internet is allowed to run free. That is for sure. The government may have a responsibility to businesses but is not bound by it which means that citizen interest is primary and if that means that the internet needs to be free and has to reach every household of the country, that should be the government’s priority. Businesses are grown up enough to take care of themselves.

 At the end of the day no decision is really so tough, you can always toss a coin (unless of course your name is Jai) but I really hope that Net Neutrality lives. Otherwise, well, it’ll just be the worst irony.